Topic summary

Storage organs

Storage organs

Extracted from the Wikipedia article Storage organ.

Relationship to perennating organ

Storage organs may act as perennating organs ('perennating' as in perennial, meaning "through the year", used in the sense of continuing beyond the year and in due course lasting for multiple years). These are used by plants to survive adverse periods in the plant's life-cycle (e.g. caused by cold, excessive heat, lack of light or drought). During these periods, parts of the plant die and then when conditions become favourable again, re-growth occurs from buds in the perennating organs. For example, geophytes growing in woodland under deciduous trees (e.g. bluebells, trilliums) die back to underground storage organs during summer when tree leaf cover restricts light and water is less available.